INSIDE EDITION Investigates Counterfeit Tickets

Date: 12/12/2012

INSIDE EDITION Exposes 12/12/12 Concert Scams

It's the music event of the year. Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Kanye West, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney are all coming together on 12/12/12 to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

But some people who thought they were buying tickets to the big concert are discovering that they have been ripped off.

Christopher Lambert tried buying tickets for his sister who has been displaced since Sandy destroyed her home in the Borough of Queens, N.Y.

Lambert told INSIDE EDITION, “I wanted to do something nice for her.”

He saw an ad on Craigslist and sent the seller $800. But he says it was a scam. The tickets never came. “I still want to go. We still want to go. We deserve to go, and people like this guy took advantage of us,” Lambert said.

So how easy is it to get scammed? We found an ad on Craigslist offering two great tickets for $800. The seller, who called himself Andrew, wanted to meet on the street in upper Manhattan and he said to bring cash.

Posing as the customer, INSIDE EDITION’s Lisa Guerrero showed up. “Hi, can I see the tickets?” Andrew handed over two official-looking tickets and eagerly accepted the cash payment.

“Here's the money,” said Guerrero.

He was in such a rush he didn't even want to count the money.

Guerrero asked, “Do you want to count the money or anything?”

“Nah, I trust you,” replied Andrew.

But, before he walked away with the cash, Guerrero asked, “Are these tickets for real?” Andrew assured her they were.

So Guerrero took the tickets to Brock Moore of the online ticket seller StubHub, which is also raising money for the benefit concert.

Guerrero asked, “Can you tell me whether or not those look real to you?”

Moore replied, “First off, just by touching them, I can tell they're not. This isn't the stock that is typically printed on. It's too thick.”

When Moore compared our ticket to a real ticket, he noticed some other pretty glaring discrepancies. On the ticket we bought, the concert is called "Sandy Relief". But on a real ticket, it's called "Concert for Sandy Relief." According to our ticket, the sponsor is Absolut Vodka. But in reality, it's Chase Bank. Even the start time is wrong. On our ticket the printed start time is 7:30. But any real ticket clearly displays the show time as 7:15.

“These are definitely fake,” Moore said.

When Guerrero asked Andrew, our ticket seller on the street, if he had sold her counterfeit tickets. He denied it.

“These aren't real tickets for the concert, are they?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Andrew said as he ran away from our cameras.

“These are a scam, aren't they?” asked Guerrero.

“No,” he said.

“Why would you be scamming people out of tickets?” Guerrero asked. “This is supposed to be for Sandy relief, not for your bank account. Why are you scamming people?”

But rather than answer the questions, Andrew just got in his car, slammed the door and drove away.

So how can consumers be sure they get the tickets they pay for? Moore suggests always purchasing tickets from a reputable vendor who can guarantee a refund and never pay with cash.